Arkansas man sentenced to probation in cannabis case

URBANA — An Arkansas man who admitted he had cannabis intended for sale in Champaign County earlier this year has been sentenced to three years of probation.

Raul Garza, 40, of West Hope, Ark., was also ordered to pay more than $39,000 in fines, $37,500 of which was the street value of his cache.

Garza pleaded guilty to unlawful possession with intent to deliver cannabis, admitting that on May 1, he had between 2,000 and 5,000 grams of the substance in two duffel bags that an Illinois state trooper found on a bus after getting a tip that Garza was meeting a man with it at a gas station on Olympian Drive just north of Champaign.

Assistant State's Attorney Stephanie Weber said a canine working with the trooper alerted to the presence of cannabis in the bags.

At the time of his arrest, police said Garza had about 164 pounds of cannabis in the bags.

Just like at the end of the 1920s: 0ur prisons are full, our economy is in ruins, the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of Americans have been destroyed or severely disrupted. What was once a shining beacon of liberty and prosperity has become a toxic, repressive, smoldering heap of hypocrisy and a gross affront to fundamental human decency.

America it is time to wake up. Prohibition is a cultural and economic assault on your money, on your careers, on your ability to put food on the table, have shelter, cloth yourself, and even survive or self-medicate. The fiscal cliff isn't the crisis. Prohibitionist control over America's politics and government is.